This is not going to be a long piece <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why should it be <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short during the final months of the war <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had rescued a wounded footballer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he stumbled towards the enemy lines <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another rake of machine gun fire <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Would have finished him off<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had been shot just above the knee <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And was obviously in great pain <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as suffering from concussion <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew who he was and imagined <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Him dressed it the red shirt of our nation <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running skilfully down the wing <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this was not a football field <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a battlefield where men died <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I managed to drag him to safety <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He survived the war <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I survived the war <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And peace returned <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the whole idea <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want peace fight wars <\/p>\n\n\n\n
About three years later <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national side was in town <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gatjeans was no long playing <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bullet wound had seen to that <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he was playing an important role <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In creating a national side to be proud of <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had returned to my bookshop <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And ran it with my wife <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Tuesday before the game <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gatjeans walked into my shop <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And asked for me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had aged and there was a sadness <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his pale blue eyes <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was something that I recognised <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only too often after the war<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had brought a football for my son <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was his gift to me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For saving his life on that bleak day <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We shared tea and he said that <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He would not thank me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I had done what he might of done <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If our roles had been reversed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This I understood fully <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His greatest wish was that we remain friends <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is not going to be a long piece Why should it be In short during the final months of the war I had rescued a wounded footballer As he stumbled towards the enemy lines Another rake of machine gun fire Would have finished him off He had been shot just above the knee And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13581"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13586,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions\/13586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}